tiny Tuesday tidbits

in which our plucky heroine stays up way too late and gets very little done...

For some reason, my makerie-mojo has been missing more often than I'd like. I miss it.There are whole days when it is all I can do to drag through the maintenance tasks of life. Someday, maybe, there will be places again, and people living to share them with. It isn't depression when the actual facts of the world are so dire. I still walk, I still breathe, and my deep stubborness drives me forward into the unknown

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beauty in the time of isolation:

Every time I go down to the dental school, I keep trying to take some sort of interesting photograph of the environs, and may have finally succeeded... this is the Tilikum Crossing bridge and a rather pleasantly spectacular cloudscape...

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This is one of the most adorable advertisements I have seen in ages. I am rather excessively fond of well done animation, and indeed,will be signing up to have milk etc delivered to my own front porch. To be sure, I had been thinking of doing so for quite some time now anyway, as a number of my friends have been very pleased with it, and the products are those I would be buying anyway...

Alpenrose Home Delivery
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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	twirly skirt	grapevine pruned	yard waste bin
2	Mano d'Oro scroll	fox head painted	Ailanthus cut down
3	four jars dilly beans	horses blouse collar	recycle bin
4	pickled beets	much plum pruning	yard waste bin
5	-	windfall fruit gone	yard waste bin
6	-	x	x
7	-	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - fruit exchange... Kindly pal Poni gave me a ride to my dental followup appointment, and there was an exchange of fresh fruit. Somehow she had a abundance of mango, melon, and oranges to share. I of course now have a plentitude of plums, with enough to share.

plum season begins

in which our plucky heroine is not chased by danger bugs...

Last night dreamland kept teasingly showing me life in the Before Times, so when I awoke for the third time and noticed that the light was creeping around the window edges, I decided to contradict my sorrow with yardwork. Yesterday, you may recall, was warm enough by 9AM that yellowjackets were actively foraging in the windfall fruit, which made pruning or fruit picking far too hazardous (I am allergic to their stings)

However, not only was today forecast to be cooler, but at 6:30AM, it was cool enough that there were no wasps at all in evidence when I approached the plum thicket. A great deal of pruning ensued. I was able to cut back much of the "underbrush"* so that I can actually get into the thicket to pick plums, as well as removing dead branches and branchlets. I filled the burden cloth three times.

I also was able to rake up much of the windfall fruit, both plums, and the apples fallen from the backyard tree, and those all went into the yard waste bin, so as to not draw more yellowjackets. This may be a hopeless cause, since my neighbors on one side dump all the windfall pears from their tree into an open compost bin right next to my fence, and the back alley neighbors seem to be dumping their windfall apples over their fence into a huge pile in the alley. Alas, whether with unwanted fruit, or basic infection prevention, one cannot do much other than try and be a good example.

I must say, though, that getting up early for a few hours doing yardwork before the sun is high and the yard too warm, was a good choice! I shall remember this, and attempt to make it a habit. The backyard here at Acorn Cottage could use some loving attention, and an hour or two every day will make a difference... And, it gives me great pleasure to find that the plums are becoming ripe, a few weeks earlier than usual, so it is time to begin picking them for freezing and preserving:

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~ creativity challenge ~

My next project will be to carve a printing block with the "comedy and tragedy" masks, as my intention is to print a set of pillowcases for my youngest nephew, who left for college this past week, and is going to school for theater arts. I haven't done any block printing since the twirly skirt I made for Kestrel, and I have ordered more fabric printing ink as well as a different brand of oil based water cleanup ink for printing on paper. Maybe I will make a calendar for 2022 that is block printed?

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	twirly skirt	grapevine pruned	yard waste bin
2	Mano d'Oro scroll	fox head painted	Ailanthus cut down
3	four jars dilly beans	horses blouse collar	recycle bin
4	pickled beets	much plum pruning	yard waste bin
5	-	windfall fruit gone	yard waste bin
6	-	x	x
7	-	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - The cooler weather and light overcast which made the morning so pleasant, and the gorgeous sunset high-cloudlight tonight when I was outside bringing in the dry laundry at the end of the day

*(plums happily sprout up from fallen fruit, indeed I plan on digging up some of the more accessible plum babies growing elsewhere in the yard, to share with friends)

somewhat of a slog

in which our plucky heroine returns...

truth to tell, have not felt much like posting here, since the interminable pandemic has been dragging me down... The worst of the summer heat may be behind us, though days with sunny weather in the 80's are enough to drive me indoors. I've been pushing myself to make progress on various tasks, with some limited success. The increased contagion plays hob with various plans for improvement; I have decided that it is currently too dangerous to have workmen inside Acorn Cottage, so my "new stove plan" is currently on hold indefinitely.

The weekend was fairly successful, my presentation yesterday on using Scythian imagery for SCA scribal arts was well received. The custom dress sewing project I completed last week was picked up today (distanced porch pickup with Paypal funds transfer), and I will be making her another one for pickup after September...

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~ creativity challenge ~

(photo courtesy of the British Museum)

The better part of last week was all about working on my Google Slides presentation "Scythian Imagery into Scribal Artistry"  to have it ready for the Three Mountains Summer Court Event on Saturday. The focus was on Roman and Scythian cultures, a pleasantly narrow focus that allowed a good assortment of classes, as well as a selection of recipes and videos of suitable foods, so folks could cook and eat together if separately. There were evening online gatherings as well, for court, and for bardic and storytelling, but I was mostly there for my class, and a few other classes on the animals of the Eurasian steppes, and the shoes and accessories of the Scythian nomads.

I will admit to feeling rather daunted when Marya asked me to do this presentation, as my areas of expertise lie in other directions. That said, it was very much a pleasure to begin to learn about this culture and all the many artifacts we have which have been remarkably preserved from millennia ago. And, the research will be useful to me, as I plan on creating a Scythian inspired scroll for my friend Raven Qara Ton, and am feeling rather honored that she considers my work to be of a style and standard that she approves of.

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I've some pestilential problems to deal with soon... the mystery animal living under the porch needs to be trapped (probably rat(s) since mice are too small to drag the sizeable chunks of shredded plastic tarp I've been finding)

The heat is now causing plums to fall from the thicket and thereby generate yellowjackets (ugh) which I hope to deal with by getting up early enough at first light to be able to rake up the fallen broken fruit, so I can get in there to prune the tree(s)... I went out to prune the plum thicket this morning around 9:30, and was fortunate not to get stung... one landed on my arm!! I need to be able to get in there for pruning, and for fruit picking, as the autumnal plum crop is an important part of my food supply.

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	twirly skirt	grapevine pruned	yard waste bin
2	Mano d'Oro scroll	fox head painted	Ailanthus cut down
3	four jars dilly beans	horses blouse collar	recycle bin
4	-	-	yard waste bin
5	-	-	-
6	-	x	x
7	-	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - The week of antibiotics is ending tomorrow, and with luck, that will have dealt with whatever was causing the intense toothache in my surgical site. Currently it seems so, as my remaining symptom is intense cold sensitivity, which also happened after the previous surgery and took months to resolve. I have a follow up appointment at the dental school on Tuesday, and will hopefully know more at that point. I look forward to when my teeth will only require quarterly maintenance visits, someday.

owie

in which our plucky heroine has a bad toothache...

(noted for the record)

 It's been about six weeks now since I had periodontal surgery (July 7th). My poor tooth was mostly feeling better, but since midday Friday (August 20th) I've been having symptoms that concern me...

Pain, intermittent but increasing. If I chew on that side at all, immediate pain that takes a while to stop. Friday night I had an episode of chills, without fever. An overall sense that something is very wrong.  I am scared that I may have an infection, either in the tooth, and or the gum, or the bone. Or that the tooth is broken and will need extracted. Or both. I was going to try and hold out over the weekend, but I'm worried now that might be foolish, and will call the dental school today anyway, though not sure what use that would be on a Sunday I've no idea.

summer in the city Wednesday into Thursday

in which our plucky heroine comes completely unstuck in sleep/wake cycle...

Finally fall asleep after midnight, but get up again just before dawn on Wednesday. Turn on the fans for a few hours. Rising heat means turn off the fans and deploy the mylar bubblepack. Fall asleep around lunchtime for a while, with the bedroom fan blowing across the room, as the house and environs begin to bake. Wake up and eat some of the refrigerated precooked food I prepared yesterday and the day before. Decide it is too hot to process the dilly beans, and put that off till tomorrow morning early.

10 PM. 85°F inside the house. 85°F outside the house. Gave up and turned on the AC in the bedroom for the duration. Moved my long narrow folding table into the bedroom at the foot of the bed. Moved the laptop into the bedroom. Found journal, writing sticks etc, container of everyday meds, and small handwork project. Filled the water bottle with ice cubes and water.

It is going to be several days before Acorn Cottage is at all comfortable in it's entirety, but fingers crossed that the bedroom will remain cool. To use the laptop requires being sort of wedged between the end of the bed and my hanging wardrobe but 68°F is much nicer than 85°F. I plan on some sketching, some planning, and some embroidery, as well as just catching up on sleep. Any housey chores must needs happen in the early pre-dawn hours

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~ creativity challenge ~

It occurs to me that I could do hand stitchery and make a body suitable for the fox head...I don't currently have space to drag as sewing machine setup into the bedroom, but hand stitching takes up no more space than embroidery, and with a little LED booklight, there would be enough light. I think Nandina would like her new friend to be more than a disembodied head resting on the back of the sofa!

OR...

I could get back to some embroidery I put aside months ago in despair, as a pledge of faith in a someday future where there may be SCA events again. In 2018 my friend Marya was elevated to the Order of the Laurel, and I helped with the decorations for her rubakha (Russian undergown), which gave me the idea of making a set of clothing in that style for myself. (mostly because temple ornaments are so wonderful, like earrings only attached to a headdress, and with delightful shinka-shinka tinkling metal sounds, and to wear such, I would want appropriate clothing as well...)

I had actually completed the wrist cuffs and the neckline front panels, but stalled out on embroidering the band collar piece. Today I completed about a third of the collar embroidery. This set of clothing has various parts and pieces... the undergown is fairly simple, other than decorative embroidered trim. The overdress I intend to block print, in imitation of silk samite, but on lightweight linen, in a pattern of Laurel wreaths, and horses, and some yet-to-be-determined interstitial motif, probably acorn related. I have some medium blue linen for this, and will use the embroidered collar and cuffs from my own elevation gown as decoration.

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Rather than let the gifted bean bounty go to waste, my first task after deploying the box fans was to put up the dilly beans that I spent a good chunk of time yesterday cutting to jar length. With luck I'll have four jars that will add savory goodness to wintertime meals, well worth the extra kitchen heat this morning.

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	twirly skirt	grapevine pruned	yard waste bin
2	Mano d'Oro scroll	fox head painted	Ailanthus cut down
3	four jars dilly beans	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	-	x	x
7	-	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - so wonderful, and so very quick... ordered yesterday, the N95 "duckbill style" masks arrived this evening. They look goofy, but allow more space around the nose and mouth, so feel more comfortable. I intend to pattern a cloth over-mask for times when being in a public space is necessary.

fox head, fox head, teeny tiny fox head...

in which our plucky heroine wakes up early...

...because early morning is the best time of day, in summer. There have been a few days of respite, with pleasant daytime temperatures in the mid 70's, and delightfully cool nights. Not for long, as we are heading into another heat-danger-zone of triple digits and little cooling off at night. Ugh!

But, for the last several days, my morning walk included carrying a small bucket, as I foraged the alleys for ripe blackberries. Since they are weeds here, no one minds if some of the fruit gets picked (and I always ask). A few pounds were enough to make a seedless syrup to pour over yogurt. I force berries through a sieve, mashing with a wooden spoon, in order to leave the seeds behind. Some lemon zest and juice, a modest amount of sugar to balance it, and this time I tried simmering a sprig of sage in the syrup before putting it in jars for shelf storage.

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~ creativity challenge ~

Painted the spun cotton fox head made earlier this summer, preparing to create a companion for Nandina.

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Other housey tasks have included the everpresent pruning. I cut back about half of feral grape, as since I don't make wine, the grapes are of no real use to me, and once the season progresses, they become yellowjacket feeding stations. I removed the ailanthus tree that sprouted on the east side of the house, and continued cutting back branches that overhang the sidewalk from the parking strip. When it cools down again, I will be doing more cutting back and pruning up of the plum thicket.

Two different households shared their bounty of green beans with me, some from the Mud Bay crew, and some from Conchobar and Liaden. More beans than I can easily eat at one time, so am intending to attempt "dilly beans" and turn some of them into condiments instead.

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This article seems to me to also be relevant to how we are adapting (or not adapting) to the ongoing grief of losing Earth That Was in exchange for Isolation World

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	twirly skirt	grapevine pruned	yard waste bin
2	Mano d'Oro scroll	fox head painted	Ailanthus cut down
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	-	x	x
7	-	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - word arrived that a friend is sending me some N95 masks, which will help keep me safe(er) in the newly returned danger of COVID from the Delta variant

a complexity of five

in which our plucky heroine pushes against boundaries...

In the recent 48 Hour challenge, I was asked to create a Mano d'Oro scroll for Stephen of Hunmanby. The Mano d'Oro is an award given to those who have been exemplary in both excellence in and of great and long standing service to the Arts and Sciences of An Tir.

Every time I do a new original scroll, I choose at least one thing new to try. With this scroll, I ended up with five new things: first time working with Pergamenata, first time doing "bar and ivy" style, first time adding a portrait to a historiated capital initial, first time including musical notation, and first time doing linework decoration around minor capitals...

The new original Mano d'Oro scroll
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bar and ivy style, vertical bars with foliage
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portrait (copied from FB profile photo)
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musical notation
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delicate linework decorating a small capital letter
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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	twirly skirt	grapevine pruned	yard waste bin
2	Mano d'Oro scroll	Ailanthus cut down	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	-	x	x
7	-	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - I love that the internet allows for detailed research examining historical documents and books, including things like missals and books of hours, which I find endlessly fascinating and a great source of inspiration. I also love the generosity of the many institutions that have places parts of their collections available to the public at large!

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine toddles along...

It has been a week, sometimes delightful, sometimes difficult... but rather than not write, I return here once again to do my best, to note what is bright amongst the growing despair. The best news is that I can move forward on my dream of having a kitchen that will allow me to be "cooking with gas".  A week ago the gas company tech came here to check out my appliances for safety and also went up in the attic and determined that the pipe in my kitchen is connected to the supply pipe for my gas furnace. I did a happy dance.

The Terrible Electric Stove of the only-two-burners, and the exploding-oven-door will be replaced with a new gas range, which will hopefully serve well for many years of future cooking. Of course, like everything else in Pandemic World, the contractors that do this work are all backed up because more demand and less workers, but in time, I will arrange for a valve and shutoff to be added to the line, and then (hopefully) be able to purchase the actual gas range. Thanks to the generous help from my friends, I have a nest egg set aside for this project, and it will be wonderful to have multiple functioning burners to cook on and to use when canning and preserving. Stay tuned for future updates!

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~ creativity challenge ~

A few years ago, I made wee little Kestrel an SCA tunic decorated with blockprinted crows... as happens, it was quickly outgrown. The material was still in good condition, and it was well loved, so rather than pass it along to another child, it became a twirly skirt instead.

What I ended up doing was cutting the tunic apart just at the underarms, and then cutting it into six panels. Those panels were alternated with other panels cut from a different plaid fabric to make the main part of the skirt. The tunic sleeves were turned into big useful pockets, and decorated with the remaining bits of original block printing, and additional Totoro motifs.

Because the kiddo is getting taller, I added an additional ruffled hemline extension, with new block printing of ponies and flowers, and a final bit of edge binding at the join, which I decorated with the last of my tiny rickrack, leftover from my floral blouse project last year. It seems a successful recombination of textile bits into a fun and playful garment.

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Oh this unexpected find is like a magical time machine back to my younger days...

... it was a different world back then

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	twirly skirt	-	yard waste bin
2	Mano d'Oro scroll	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	-	x	x
7	-	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - hummingbirds! This morning, I was almost nose to nose with a flash of glittering red, as what I think was a rufous hummingbird dived towards the front yard fuchsia. I had been leaning on the porch railing chatting with my neighbor (who was sitting on her own doorstep, so we were plenty far away), when I heard that distinctive buzz...